The controversial and challenging subject of Data Privacy is a current focus of Dr Kass’s efforts. Overcoming the conflicting needs to aggregate and analyse personal data while at the same time safeguarding personal privacy is a growing contemporary conundrum. Dr Kass has served as an expert on this subject with the EC, as well as with various other international bodies and working groups, such as NATO (Telemedicine Panel), EHTEL (European Health Telematics Association), Telemedicine Alliance (TMA).

Effective privacy protection of personal data is a critical element for the unhindered development of electronic communication technologies and business. There is a vast array of services made possible by collecting and processing data, that are becoming increasingly useful for the citizen, for the service provider, for research (e.g. medical ) – and in fact for almost every avenue of life.

Unfortunately, there is an apparent dilemma – increased services to the citizen are usually accompanied with increased aggregation of personal data, which, in turn, translates to increased jeopardy to data protection. And, adherence to the now very stringent privacy rules being invoked around the world can be very costly, while at the same time being rather ineffective, where, as is often the case, there is a dependence on human intervention.

Our mission is to harness the potential advantages of data collection while at the same time returning control of personal data to the individual. The citizen should NOT have to pay for the increased services by sacrificing privacy and protection of personal data!